Administrators at Columbia University braced themselves over the weekend for planned citywide walkouts marking the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel and the start of the war on Gaza. In an email Sunday evening, a Columbia Law school administrator told professors to call campus security officers on protesters who did not heed requests to stop any disruptions in classrooms.
The administrator’s email instructed professors to give two warnings to “students or others who violate the Rules of University Conduct.” Afterward, professors and teaching assistants were told to call the campus Public Safety department if the students “involved in the disruption refuse to stop despite your request they do so” and “there is no immediate safety concern,” according to the email, which was obtained by The Intercept. The email referred to the instructions as “highly practical tips for addressing and de-escalating classroom disruptions.”
The email also instructed professors to call 911 “if the disruptive behavior is so severe that it poses an immediate threat to your safety or the safety of others.” Campus security officers are unarmed.
Columbia University emerged over the past year as a flashpoint of a renewed campus anti-war activism aimed at ending U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza, as well as the war itself. After spreading to campuses across the country, the debate over the war has seen an unprecedented crackdown: thousands of arrests, brutal beatings of students and faculty by police, and existential questions about the limits of academic freedom when it comes to criticizing Israel.
Columbia administrators’ admonitions to students and orders to professors — including a second campuswide email warning that a planned walkout would violate school rules — underscore how, as the fighting in the Middle East continues to escalate, the clampdown on student and faculty activism against the war will continue apace.
After returning to campus this fall, Columbia students continued their calls from the prior year for the school to divest from companies with ties to Israel — the same cause that drove the encampments and occupation of Hamilton Hall in the spring. The protests had resulted in mass arrests and student suspensions.
This semester, protests on campus have been few but have included a march outside the campus entrance; a sit-in at the School of International and Public Affairs protesting a class taught by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in September; as well as silent study-in protests inside Low Memorial Library.
Ahead of Monday, the Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine promoted a walkout just before noon at the steps in front of Low Library, encouraging students and workers at the school to leave classes and jobs. “No School. No Work. No business as usual,” the poster read. “The Palestinian resistance will free us all, it is our duty to join the fight.” Dozens of protesters had gathered in front of the library, its steps guarded by metal barriers, by noon on Monday, according to a livestream from the group. Over the weekend, students also gathered at the library steps to read the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
In a separate email also sent Sunday evening, Interim President Katrina Armstrong warned members of the Columbia community about “a period of uncertainty in the coming days.” Armstrong said the school would “increase public safety presence across campus for the next three days.”
She said the school was supporting some planned special events and nonviolent protests but was concerned about planned walkouts across New York City. Would-be campus participants in the walkout, she wrote, had not registered with the university — an implicit warning about the sanctions that have been meted out for unregistered protest activities. Armstrong said the walkout was not registered with campus’ administration and is not in compliance with its rules around protest.
“We have also learned and had evidence of plans of groups not affiliated with Columbia choosing to come to our Morningside campus for activities that raise concern about the potential for violence,” Armstrong wrote. She said Columbia was taking measures to address concerns about public safety and would suspend the use of QR codes for guest access at the school’s Morningside campus on Sunday and Monday and possibly later into the week.
The campus on Monday was placed in the most restrictive security level with only individuals with campus IDs allowed inside.
Another email sent to faculty and staff at the School of Arts & Sciences said that school officials and security officers were coordinating with NYPD to make sure protests outside campus were far away enough to allow access into campus.
